Monday, December 29, 2008

"IQ Test" from youth group a long time ago

I found this paper while cleaning my room.
Answers can be found at the end of this blog.

1. If you went to bed at 8:00 am and set the alarm to get up at 9:00 the next morning, how many hours of sleep would you get?
2. Does England have a Fourth of July?
3. Why can't a man living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina be buried west of the Mississippi river?
4. If you had a match and entered a room in which there were a kerosene lamp, an oil heater, and a wood-burning stove, which would you light first?
5. A man built a house with four sides to it and it is rectangular in shape. Each side has a southern exposure. A big bear came wandering by; what color is the bear?
6. How far can a dog run into the woods?
7. I have in my hand two US coins which total 55 cents in value. One is not a nickel. What are the 2 coins?
8. A farmer had 17 sheep; all but 9 died. How many does he have left?
9. Divide 30 by one-half and add 10. What is the answer?
10. Take two apples from three apples and what do you have?
11. A woman gives a beggar 50 cents. The woman is the beggar's sister but the beggar is not the woman's brother. How come?
12. Is it legal in North Carolina for a man to marry his widow's sister? Why?


ANSWERS
1. one hour
2. yes
3. he isn't dead yet
4. the match
5. white
6. halfway
7. half dollar and nickel
8. nine
9. seventy
10. two apples
11. the beggar is a girl
12. No, because if he has a widow, then he has to be dead.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

2008 in Review

Overall highlights:

Travels:
Vermont
El Paso x2
Chicago x2
Ukraine
Unintended overnight stays in Warsaw, Poland and Fishkill, NY.
Newark, DE to visit Anne!
Lancaster, PA to hang out with Olivia

New Experiences:
Lots of snowmobiling!
Swing dancing
Learning Russian and a smidgen of Ukrainian
Running over the universal joint of a bus (and subsequently damaging my car)
Surprise weekend visit to my family
Catering on campus (and getting to enjoy tasty food)
Ninja tag, Ultimate Frisbee, short runs on Wolly Beach in the middle of the night
Michael W Smith / Steven Curtis Chapman concert
Red Sox game @ Camden Yards

Goodbyes:
Professors that moved (Doc/Prof to Chicago, Prof Fiacco to TX)
Mrs. Quimby, high school AP Calc teacher. You will be missed.
ENC Class of 2008
old Marley Park church building

Ukraine (gets its own section):
Meeting Charly and inhaling hot glue fumes (by accident!) and good times all night long on the deck. Exploring Kiev. Traveling by overnight train. Building relationships with families. Blowing bubbles with Katya and playing catch with Sveta. Playing with 3 year old twin boys who seemed to get in trouble all the time. Facing suffering, and finding that worship is the only feasible response. Attended a Ukrainian wedding and reception. Running over a tire-stopper-block (for semi trucks), but this time I wasn't driving! Seeing the end of the line for banana boxes of humanitarian aid. VBS's all around. Going to the Vapnyarka bazaar and meat market on my birthday. Using squatty potties. Eating dried fish, salo, and chicken-flavored potato chips. Tumbleweed Gulch Ukrainian-style. God keeping us safe throughout our travels.

Spiritual highlights:
Got baptized.
Trying to figure out if God is calling me to missions.
Having more questions than answers (not really a highlight, not sure how to describe it).

Academic highlights:
Declared a religion minor.
Education Club activities
Finishing all my major classes (only student teaching and an independent study left!)

Next year is going to bring just as many changes, I'm sure.
Ready or not, here I come, 2009!

This is a Call, part 2

(part one of this blog can be found here)

Once again, I am home on vacation, and have the Central Call System calling me about substituting.

The past two mornings, I've had my alarm going off at the latest possible time for me to get up, shower, and get ready to go to a school. However, at that point, there weren't any jobs listed for me, so I would go back to bed. Within the next hour, the phone would ring multiple times with jobs for me, but there was no way I could make it to the school at that point -- so I would go back to bed AGAIN.

I realized that the SMART choice would have been to get up and get ready, and then find out where there was a job available for me.

It made me think about how I should be ready to go where God wants me, even if I don't know where that is just yet, and even if I would really like to stay where it's comfortable. I need to get out of what is comfortable, and begin preparing for any of the possibilities I am considering for next year.

I should be ready to respond and go at the same time. "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."
I couldn't help but notice the parallels in this situation to listening for God's call. We should be aware of when God might be calling us or speaking to us--which is really any time, not just a few hours out of the day. When He does call us, we should be ready to listen and obey, disregarding other concerns (even family-?). Because He has called us, we should be willing to accept that call, no matter what it is.
I'm really not terribly sure what next year will bring. A year from now, where will I be? Will I be here in MD? Will I be in El Paso? Will I be in Ukraine? Will I be somewhere else?

Right now there are more questions than answers.

The best I know is that I am called to follow Christ, to be made in His image, to worship Him, to share His love with others. Beyond that is unknown to me right now.

"I held these dreams of my heart tight inside, fearing that if I revealed them to anyone, then I might be held accountable to them or be seen as a failure if things didn't work out." ~Brooklyn Lindsey